"There Is All Africa And Her Prodigies In Us"
Context: This introspective examination of a doctor's religious convictions is a significant contribution to the Christian humanism of a period in which the "new science" seemed to cast doubt on all received doctrines. This section appears toward the end of a long discussion (Sections 6–16) of the relationship between reason and religion. There are many wonders in nature, Browne says, which give evidence of the wisdom and power of God. In all of nature, however, he continues, the most wondrous creation is man:
. . . I could never content my contemplation with those general pieces of wonder, the flux and reflux of the sea, the increase of Nile, the conversion of the needle to the North; and therefore have studied to match and parallel those in the more obvious and neglected pieces of Nature, which without further travel I can do in the cosmography of my self; we carry with us the wonders, we seek without us: There is all Africa, and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and endlesse volume.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.
